Freedom

Your beneficent New Orleans City Council declares, on this Holy Feast Day of St. Patrick, that they are pretty much okay with your use of recreational green herbs. Sort of.

An ordinance that would punish marijuana possession in New Orleans with a fine rather than jail time got some tweaks Thursday from the New Orleans City Council, which plans to vote on the amended proposal in two weeks.

The changes to the proposed law, which has been pushed by Councilwoman Susan Guidry, would still allow police to treat pot possession as essentially a minor citation punishable by a fine of between $40 and $100. By contrast, penalties under state law start with a fine of up to $300 and 15 days in jail and can range as high as eight years in prison.

Officers could choose whether to enforce the state law or the local ordinance.

Meaning they're cool with it as long as you're still prepared to pay $100 or possibly even still go to jail depending on whether or not a specific police officer happens to like you. So definitely let's expect a few discrimination lawsuits to come our way between now and whenever the state legislature decides to do the rational thing.  Which is to say, expect a lot of lawsuits. over a long period of time.